After three others including Oyo backed out, private equity firms KKR and Apax Partners were the only ones left in the race to buy a significant stake in Café Coffee Day (CCD), The Economic Times reported.

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The report, citing three people familiar with the matter, said that SoftBank-backed hospitality chain Oyo was interested only in the CCD brand which its owner Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) was unwilling to offer.

TPG Capital and Bain Capital opted out mainly due to differences over valuation, it said.

Former Central Bureau of Investigation official Ashok Kumar Malhotra was looking into a letter that CCD founder VG Siddhartha wrote to the board, two days before he went missing. Siddhartha was found dead on July 31, 2019. The company’s board is expected to speed up talks with investors once the investigation report is submitted, the report said.

The company was struggling to run its operations after the death of Siddhartha. CDEL’s debt was at Rs 4,970 crore.

CCD has 1,480 outlets nationally and it is the largest food and beverage network in the country, even after shutting 280 stores to improve profitability.

First Published:Dec 25, 2019 9:12 AM IST